Headlines

Nicholas Bedford

Three steps: How the Dems plan to make Texas a battleground state by 2016

In 2008, 35 percent of Texan Hispanics voted for the GOP. No exit polls were taken in Texas in 2012, but the national Hispanic GOP vote was only 27 percent — four points lower than the national Hispanic GOP vote in 2008. So, going off of limited data, and giving the GOP the benefit of the doubt, the Democrats would need to swing Texan Hispanic voters their way by between four and eight points.

And while Republicans like Mr. Norquist and Texas Gov. Rick Perry say that the Democrat’s goal is a pipe dream because of the Texas GOP’s differences from the national GOP, they would be well served by studying the case of former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, who, despite a roundly liberal record on abortion and other social issues, was painted as part of a national, socially conservative machine by 2012 Democrats. Then-candidate Elizabeth Warren didn’t focus attacks on Mr. Brown for his quotes regarding abortion, for example — she instead ran ads attacking former Missouri Rep. Todd Akin’s quotes on abortion.

In the next Texas election, Texas Republicans should not expect to be spared attack ads highlighting Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer’s harsher immigration policies.

By making races national when convenient, both parties have discovered a winning strategy — and one that can overwhelm a single state’s party apparatus.

Not happening. We already have a very large Latino population here in Texas, yet the GOP still dominates in state and local elections(aside from metropolitan areas which could be said for almost every place in the country). Why is that? Because fiscal conservatism and limited government are embedded in our culture. We’re proud of the lack of a state income tax. We want our borders secure. We’re not nanny staters who like being told what we can eat or drink. If the Dems can someone change that mentality amongst Texan voters, more power to them. But something tells me trying to do that during a 2nd Obama term is probably not gonna be that easy of a task.

Run red…if you are a republican and your blue governor ruins your state run to texas and start over.

perhaps in more ways than one.

harlekwin15 on February 27, 2013 at 3:06 PM

That is my exact plan. I plan on relocating to Texas as soon as I can but right now I would need to win the lottery to accomplish that. But when the time is right, I am outta here. I have a cousin in Texas who relocated a number of years ago due to her job moving…she loves, loves, loves it. I don’t like the heat she tells me about, but I like Jersey even less than that. I simply cannot afford to retire in this godforsaken state.

That is my exact plan. I plan on relocating to Texas as soon as I can but right now I would need to win the lottery to accomplish that. But when the time is right, I am outta here. I have a cousin in Texas who relocated a number of years ago due to her job moving…she loves, loves, loves it. I don’t like the heat she tells me about, but I like Jersey even less than that. I simply cannot afford to retire in this godforsaken state.

NJ Red on February 27, 2013 at 3:13 PM

Where’s your cousin live? The heat and humidity are bad during the summer and early fall, but that’s why God invented air conditioning.

She lives in Spring, TX, west of Houston, I believe it is. She says they start their air conditioning in early April. Can’t go outside in the summertime. I’m not a big fan of air conditioning, however, I can learn. Better than dealing with these northeast liberal governments. I can’t take much more.

She lives in Spring, TX, west of Houston, I believe it is. She says they start their air conditioning in early April. Can’t go outside in the summertime. I’m not a big fan of air conditioning, however, I can learn. Better than dealing with these northeast liberal governments. I can’t take much more.

NJ Red on February 27, 2013 at 3:20 PM

I live in Katy which is southwest of Spring(which is north of H-Town). It’s all part of the Greater Houston area.

Mid-to-late March is probably when we’ll turn on our ACs this year. As for the summertime, it’s bad, but you can still go outside. Until last year I would be out for an hour or two every Sunday in the heat doing the yard and I never had any problems. I only stopped cuz we have a kid now and there’s too much stuff going on during the weekends.

If the U.S. Goverment, Executive Branch, Appointed Leaders of the D.C. operations, the Judical, the Senate, the House, and even the U.S. Army make the choice of by illegal means make the illegals “legal”, then we here in Texas understand well what to do when faced with a crime aka a criminal unconstitutional illegal operation and will deal with it as any crime should be.

I don’t like the heat she tells me about, but I like Jersey even less than that. I simply cannot afford to retire in this godforsaken state.

NJ Red on February 27, 2013 at 3:13 PM

My wife is from Tom’s River and has adjusted well to the climate here. In the Dallas area, we don’t have to turn on the A/C until late April or early May. We turn it off in late September or early October.

As i’ve said in other threads about this here at HA, anyone who discounts Texas turning blue is whistling past the graveyard. Dems first started making a push for Texas after the ’00 election, they thought Bush stole it so they were determined to make his home state of Texas blue.

R’s may still be winning on the state level, but the Texas lege has been close to 50/50 or only a slight R advantage for years, in other words that big Romney win over Obama may look good but once you dig down you see support for R’s is a mile wide and an inch deep. And here’s the latest “turn Texas blue” post from a local lib blog, of which they do one almost every week or so.

Dallas, Harris (Houston), and Bexar (San Antonio) counties are solidly blue, and Tarrant (Fort Worth) is trending that way, thanks to lefty Hispanics, African Americans, and hipster douchebags, but a lot of the rest of Texas is still red.

Right, but that’s my point, look at states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, Dems win there by getting huge margins in the blue cities that overwhelm the red rural areas. Texas may not be there yet, but that’s where it’s headed.

“According to Steve Murdock, a demographer with the Hobby Center for the Study of Texas at Rice University and a former director of the U.S. Census Bureau, the White American population is aging, while minority populations remain relatively young. As of 2011, according to Murdock, two out of three children in Texas are not non-Hispanic Whites. Murdock also predicted that, between 2000 and 2040 (assuming that the net migration rate will equal half that of 1990-2000), Hispanic public school enrollment will increase by 213 percent, while non-Hispanic white enrollment will decrease by 15 percent.”

R’s may still be winning on the state level, but the Texas lege has been close to 50/50 or only a slight R advantage for years, in other words that big Romney win over Obama may look good but once you dig down you see support for R’s is a mile wide and an inch deep.

clearbluesky on February 27, 2013 at 4:29 PM

In 2010, the TX lege went 67/33 R. Then we redisticted. The mix did not change much in 2012.

Birthright citizenship is what sealed Texas’s fate. It is the primary reason for the growing Hispanic vote and it is something that is not talked about in all the immigration reform debates.

Doester on February 27, 2013 at 3:48 PM

I agree that we must abolish Birthright citizenship. Unless the parents are in the country legally AND are pursuing a path to US citizenship then any offspring they have while here should get the citizenship of the parent’s country.

No tourism citizenship, no illegals citizenship. Only for citizens and to be gracious I’ll concede that if you are in the process of trying for US citizenship for yourself then your child should piggyback onto your application so that you will all become citizens together.

That one thing would go a long way toward fixing our broken immigration system. Say goodbye to anchor babies and all the welfare benefits they receive for their illegal parents. Without the welfare, most of them would go home.